Witchbeam

Blah blah blah… this led to a conversation with Wm. Berger about movies that give off a bit of a “Telecult vibe.” I was thinking The Satanic Rites of Dracula & Psychomania, and I was excited to see his list was different than mine. Looks like I will have no problem figuring out what to put on my Netflix cue in November.

Make sure you click on the image, it will take you to a youtube clip of the film in question. Un-Telecult Soundtracked tho.

With that, I present to you Wm. Berger’s Five Points Twice: Ten Films to Watch Telecult Powers By – Witchbeam

Materials:

1. My favorite Telecult Powers recordings – the tapes Dedicated to Robert Moore b/w Twilight of the Oscillators, and Kiss the Viper’s Fang. These, plus the Telecult WFMU live session from my show this past July 22.

2. A stack of DVD/VHS, all films I love and have watched more than twice

3. etc.

4. Candles

Method:

1. View segments of each film, with tapes playing loudly, and film audio completely muted. (Subtitles were at first optional, but I ultimately decided against them, deciding that they distracted from the mission at hand.)

2. Judge appropriately. (Sub-criteria: a) striking visuals throughout; b) occult themes; c) sex—but not porn—think real women: soft, clean, boob-heavy 60s-70s-type sex; d) always remember—a good hooded cloak,
black or red, never hurts.)

3. Fine tune results. Ideally, the film and music arc and lift together.

4. Finally, consider the numerology, i.e., the number of items on the list. Does it feel right? Can a title or two be easily shaved? The answer is probably yes.

Results:

The below are indeed in a very specific order of my personal viewing preference.

Many thanks to Witchbeam for suggesting this study.

1. Masque of the Red Death (dir. Roger Corman, 1964)
Occult technicolor. A beautiful film throughout, cinematography by Nicholas Roeg.

2. Inferno (dir. Dario Argento, 1980)

Since Suspiria already has the most wonderful soundtrack ever, Inferno, its cousin similar in look and tone, is the ideal Argento film for a Telecult treatment. To hear the Pei boys warble and pulsate at that underwater room scene might almost be too much.

3. Incubus (dir, Leslie Stevens, 1965)

Yes, black and white. Yes, William Shatner. Yes, Esperanto. A dreamlike tale, with an eerie visual palette of high-contrast witchery.

4. The Shiver of the Vampires (dir. Jean Rollin, 1971)

Telecult Powers’ music and director Rollin’s image parade are perhaps the most perfect marriage.

5. Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural (dir. Richard Blackburn, 1973)

One of my favorite films. Why would I not want to hear one of my favorite contemporary bands score it? Set almost entirely in vampiric bluish-purple.

6. Requiem for a Vampire (1971)

Yes, I snuck another Jean Rollin film onto this list. Anything that starts with a sexy female clown shooting out the back of a car window is Telecult-ready.

7. Shock Waves (dir. Ken Wiederhorn, 1977)

Nazi zombies; another one of my all-time favorites. (Comes with its own burbling, unsettling synthesizer score, so watch it before (or after) with the sound UP.)

8. Daughters of Darkness (dir. Harry Kümel, 1971)

Fassbinder meets Rollin in a car-crash of gorgeous women, blood, brilliant color, and sex sex sex.

9. The Dunwich Horror (dir, Daniel Haller, 1970)

As with Lemora above, I find myself too partial to both the film and the music to resist this suggestion.

10. Equinox (dir. Jack Woods, 1970)

A childhood favorite of mine, and a genuinely disturbing tale, featuring an evil forest ranger, an invisible castle, The Lord’s Prayer read backwards, and several stop-motion monsters, among other delights. Equinox directly inspired Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead and Evil Dead II.

And for a damned-fine alternate, I also suggest —

The Devils (dir. Ken Russell, 1971)

Moloch Rain!

Wm. Berger

Virginal Volcanoes – Witchbeam, Mr. Matthews & John Fell Ryan performing a Modern Rite of Pei.

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Jason Soliday sent me some schwag the other day, stoked that the little lady that has been stealing my mail didn’t grab it. She could probably sense the dark arts & damaged goods through the postal packaging.

“We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.” – H.P. Lovecraft, the Call of Cthulu.

Creepy crawl drumming with haunted witch woman electronics, ghostly moaned flutters. Ratatosk are super rad, this is a super rad disk. Always bummed when I get 3 inch cdrs like this because it leaves me wanting more, but fuck it, better than listening to it and being like FUCK WHEN IS THIS GOING TO BE OVER. Which I have no fear of ever crossing my mind when listening to these folks anyways.

You should check out their other projects, Ben is in a bunch of other acts including the amazing Tiger Hatchery & White Prism, Jason does his own thing called Crank Satori.

Soliday also sent me a disk called ENEMY by Brent Gutzeit & Michael Esposito, listened to it the other night, 3 am, got super freaked out. Based on EVP recordings, made me feel like I wasn’t alone in my apartment.

Gift Tapes Blog » Blog Archive » Witchbeam: The Playboy Interview.

Jason from Brother Raven hit me up a while ago about being interviewed for the Gift Tapes blog, which paralyzed me with fear for a couple of months. Who knew that typing about myself would cause me such anxiety? Well in the end I just laid back and thought of England… and tried to talk about as many of our friends as I could. You should check it out, if just to freak out to the Telecult track “The Joy of Hex.” It was going to go on a “horror electronics” comp that some guys were putting out but I don’t think it has or will ever see the light of day.  If it has, no copies have been sent to my mailbox. Anyways, while you are there, poke around the site a bit, they have some brilliant tapes available from some amazing artists.

Check out the interview HERE.